Smartphone Camera Sensors Are About To Get Even Better

Sony just announced a new sensor for smartphones called the Exmor RS IMX230. This jumbled mess of alphabet soup is a 21-megapixel stacked CMOS imaging sensor that promises higher-quality images to your personal pocket computer. Exactly how will it make your mobile pics more professional? Well, a couple of ways.

First, it has focus capabilities with 192 points for autofocus, meaning clearer images of fast-moving subjects, according to Sony. Also, the new Exmor sensor comes with HDR capabilities for 4k video recording as well as high-resolution stills and will help salvage photos that are bombarded with overly aggressive backlight. You can check out the difference below.

The sensor will be begin shipping in April 2015, which is suspiciously close to Sony's 6-month smartphone refresh cycle, so we'll most likely see these new sensors in Sony's currently unannounced 2015 Xperia line. Whether or not that's the only smartphone we'll see with the new Exmor sensor is unknown, but the iPhone 6 also uses a stacked Exmor sensor, so we could be seeing these new photo capabilities in handsets beyond Sony.